NOTES ON THE WATERS OF WESTERN INDIA. 123 



easily made to rock, and even the putting up of a gun to the shoulder 

 will cause enough motion to spoil the shot. The same is the case 

 with small native canoes, and the remedies are the same. Safe, 

 though clumsy, rafts are made of gourds lashed to a charpoy or of 

 bull-rushes by the natives, but these are apt to sink a few inches below 

 the surface, and should be surmounted by a bath-tub, a pair of wine 

 boxes caulked and painted, or some similar device for keeping the 

 passenger and his ammunition dry. 



In some places the natives make round coracles of hides ; and in 

 others they use huge circular sheet iron sugar boiler for boats ; in 

 either case reminding one of the Wise Men of Gotham in their Bowl. 



KESWAL. 



ON ABNORMALITIES IN THE HORNS OF 



RUMINANTS. 



Bv R. A. Sterndale, f.z.s., &c. 



There being several striking examples of deformity in the horns in the 

 Society's collection, I am induced to bring them to notice and to theorize 

 on the causes which have led to such results ; and a varied field for 

 speculation is opened, for many questions arise in connection with the 

 subject. The first is, are these abnormalities, in the case of antlered 

 ruminants, transitory or persistent ? and, secondly, in the hollow-horned 

 ruminants is the fons et orirjo malls in the osseous or horny formation ? 

 Then comes enquiry into the primary cause of such malformation. The 

 whole subject is involved in doubt, and but a mere hypothesis can be arrived 

 at, for almost every day we come across some freak of nature which starts 

 us off into a new channel of conjecture. With regard to the first ques- 

 tion, are the deformities of deer transitory or persistent ? that is to say, 

 would a Sambar Stag, who had developed in his seventh year an abnormal 

 tine, reproduce that abnormality the following year — the eighth ? or 

 would he revert to his normal form ? Now I will give an example from 

 a very fine head in my own collection : the horns are unusually large, 

 the right beam being 45 inches and the left id inches in length ; on 

 referring to figure 1 in the accompanying plates you will observe a tine of 

 9 inches long, which is a decided abnormality ; there is no reversion or 

 progression towards lower or higher types, but simply a sprout which has 

 taken a direction quite out of the symmetry of known species. Now, to 

 arrive at any conclusion one must consider the process of the growth of 

 antlers : they are produced annually, and with a tendency to increase 

 instead of decrease ; on the shedding of the old horn there is a decided 



